Taiwan toddler killed, 13 wounded in gas blast near Taipei

TAIPEI (AFP) - A toddler was killed and 13 people were injured in a gas explosion near Taipei on Friday, officials said, two weeks after powerful gas blasts claimed 30 lives in southern Taiwan.

Firefighters rushed to put out a fire after the explosion in an apartment in a 17-storey building in the Xindian district of New Taipei City earlier Friday, shattering the glass in several nearby stores, television footage showed.

A one-year-old boy who suffered serious burns died after emergency treatment failed to revive him while 13 others were wounded in the blast, a spokesman for the New Taipei City fire department said.

New Taipei City deputy mayor Hou You-yi told reporters that the fire was started by an unidentified gas leak and that some residents had complained to a natural gas company about a possible leak late Thursday.